Leopard hacked to death in Guwahati, six arrested

GUWAHATI: A leopard, aged about nine, was hacked to death in Guwahati's Katahbari on Sunday morning by a mob, when forest officials were trying to track it down and tranquilise it. Five persons were arrested for the gruesome act, and a minor boy was apprehended.
After hacking the animal, a group of locals celebrated wildly with the carcass and pulled out its teeth and took it away. According to forest officials, the leopard entered the area from the hills and was trapped by locals in Katahbari under the Fatasil reserve forest in Guwahati.
After the video of people celebrating with the carcass went viral on social media and local television channels, police and forest forces started a massive search and apprehended the six and brought them to Gorchuk police station. The forest department lodged an FIR with the police and they have been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and Assam Forest Regulation Act.
"It seems that many people celebrated the killing, but police are investigating to find out the person who led the attack on the animal, as he might have evaded arrest," a police officer said. However, lack of any video on the lynching has made the search harder for the police.

Divisional forest officer of Kamrup East, Rajib Baruah, said, “The leopard was already unfit. It was trapped in in Katahbari. When there was a hue and cry after families in the surrounding areas gathered at the spot, the leopard escaped. However, the people chased the animal and killed it even before it had attacked anybody.”
Baruah said the leopard was hungry and had entered the area in search of a prey. Several incidents of leopards entering city areas have been reported in the past few years, and the animals have tried to prey on pigs, dogs and chicken.
Though the post-mortem report of the leopard is awaited, forest officials suspect that it might have already been injured before it was attacked. “There were severe injuries in his leg. A healthy leopard would have easily broken the trap and escaped. But this leopard was caught in the trap made of a small rope. Someone must have laid down the trap to save their chickens from being targeted by predators,” Baruah said.
He said the forest force rushed to the spot after the local forest beat officer received information about the leopard entering the area around 5 am. But by the time Assam state zoo reached the spot around 9 am, the leopard had escaped into the jungles and was soon attacked by a group of people before it could be tranquilised.